Tottering in My Garden

Tottering in My Garden: A Gardener's Memoir by Midge Ellis Keeble

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"A gardener of 40 years, Midge Keeble has established six outstanding gardens in her life, meeting the challenges of clay, sand, shade and tired soil. Tottering in My Garden spills over with practical advice and, at the same time, serves as delightful reading to anyone who has ever broken ground with a trowel and planted a seed."
~~back cover

I'm not much of a gardener, but this is a charming and laugh-out-loud funny book. The author regales you with the stories of how each garden came to be, the mistakes made along the way, the pets who adopted them, their children growing up, etc. And all the while she talks about the gardens, how to make them what you want them to be, how to care for the plants, etc. There are several sections entitled "NOTES FOR THE NOVICE" which are extremely useful, and other tips and tricks scattered throughout the narrative.

But it's the narrative itself that's the icing on the cake: wryly humorous, self-depreciating humor about mistakes and miscues, animals on the loose, how not to garden, etc. I enjoyed the information, but I loved the story. And devoured the book almost at one go.